The Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, said today that the works taking place at the port of Nacala, in northern Mozambique, should ensure greater flexibility and competitiveness to the infrastructure.
“This port has the capacity to receive all kinds of ships and is being completely rebuilt to make it more flexible and competitive,” said the Mozambican head of state.
Filipe Nyusi was speaking during a visit to the port of Nacala, in the company of his counterpart from Malawi, Lazarus Chakwera, who is on a working visit to Mozambique from today.
The rehabilitation of the deep-water port of Nacala is budgeted at about 300 million dollars (260 million euros) and began in 2018, with completion scheduled for December this year.
With the modernization works, the port will have a handling capacity of 250,000 containers, compared to the capacity of 100,000 it currently has.
Malawi is among the countries without direct access to the sea that use the infrastructure and, according to official data, 16% of the approximately 20 million tons of products shipped annually from the port to inland countries is destined for Malawi.
“This port moves the economy of Mozambique and Malawi,” stressed the Mozambican President.
For the Malawian President, the infrastructure has regional importance and can be a vehicle to strengthen the economic development of the two nations.
“The importance of this port is evident by the economic development of the region,” declared Lazarus Chakwera, who applauded the fact that the infrastructure is increasing its capacity.
In addition to visiting the port of Nacala, Lazarus Chakwera and Filipe Nyusi today launched the first phase of the Mozambique-Malawi Regional Integration project, inaugurating a power tower of the interconnection line between the two countries.
Lazarus Chakwera will continue his state visit to Mozambique until Sunday and the regional context will also be on the table, since Malawi currently chairs the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The country is part of the SADC mission that supports Mozambican troops in the fight against terrorism in Cabo Delgado.
